Jim Manzi (born 1951) is the former chairman, president and
CEO of
Lotus Development Corporation and is currently a private investor in various technology start-up ventures.
Early career
Manzi received his B.A. in Classics from
Colgate University in 1973, and later received his M.A. in International Relations from the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in it ...
at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in
Medford, Massachusetts. In 1973, Manzi was a research assistant to
William F. Buckley
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
, and journeyed to the Soviet Union with the editorial staff of ''
National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...
''. Later, Manzi worked as a
management consultant
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants ...
at
McKinsey & Company.
[Interwise: True Enterprise Conferencing:Interwise Investors](_blank)
Lotus
In 1982, Manzi joined
Lotus Development
Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018.
Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1- ...
. In 1984, he became President and two years later Chairman and CEO succeeding founder
Mitchell Kapor. When Kapor left the company, Manzi steered the company away from desktop application software. He is credited with successfully migrating the company to and creating a new category of network applications. The product, Lotus Notes, was developed by
Ray Ozzie and a team of engineers at Iris Associates, in conjunction with a core team at Lotus. Ultimately the company was sold for a $3.5 billion to
IBM. largely on the strength of the potential of Lotus Notes. On October 11, 1995 Manzi announced his resignation from the Lotus division of
IBM.
Career after Lotus
Since 1995, via his investment company
Stonegate Capital, Manzi has been involved in the creation and development of a number of technology start-up ventures.
On May 25, 2000, Manzi made an investment in Interwise and joined its board. Interwise was sold to AT&T. He is on the boards of Cargometrics, Elysium Health and Paxos.. For 12 years until 2020, he was chairman of
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Sc ...
a public company in life sciences technology and services with $40 billion in sales and a market cap of more than $200 billion.
Personal life
Manzi is married to Kay Calvert, a retired technology executive. From a prior marriage, Manzi has three children, Julianna, 32, Jay 31 and Jack, 25.
References
;Notes
* Darrow, Barbara. ''2003 Industry Hall of Fame: Jim Manzi''. CRN, December 15, 2003
* Judge, Paul C. and Baker, Stephen. ''Were Jim Manzi's Big Ideas Too Big?''. BusinessWeek, May 26, 1997
''Former Lotus Chief Manzi Heads Up Another Venture''. TechWeb.com, December 09, 2003
External links
Jim Manzi's Article (The End of the Literary Industrial Complex)2003 Industry Hall of Fame: Jim ManziWere Jim Manzi's Big Ideas Too Big?InterWise Appoints Former Lotus Chief, Jim Manzi, to Board of DirectorsOne-stop site for blogs offered- ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''
Willamette University - Jim Manzi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manzi, Jim
1951 births
Colgate University alumni
Living people
American people of Italian descent
American management consultants
McKinsey & Company people
People from Cotuit, Massachusetts